Last Saturday’s NCAA East Regional Championship on the campus of Bowdoin College did not go as planned for 乐播传媒 men’s cross country captain Ryan Smith ’23 of Westport, Conn.

Reason being: He lost one of his shoes within the first mile of the 8K race.

“My shoe was loose because someone stepped on it, so I looked behind me and saw like 100 runners in pursuit,” Smith said. “I couldn’t afford to slow down to fix it. I kicked the shoe into the woods and kept going.”

Remarkably, Smith finished 11th out of more than 200 runners, pacing the Bobcats to a second-place showing overall. The next day, the Bobcats learned they’d qualified for the NCAA Championships for the 11th time in program history.

The women’s team survived their race without any shoe-related incidents. But captain Jill Richardson ’23 of Auburn, Maine, had a challenge of her own.

The Bobcats always try to run as a pack, but Richardson is, as her teammate Frieda Kickliter ’23 of Mobile, Ala., says, “different.”

Different in that she’s just faster than everyone else 鈥� not just on the team, but in the region. Richardson, an All-American in 2021, won Saturday’s race by more than 40 seconds, becoming the first 乐播传媒 women’s cross country runner to win the regional championship in 30 years.

So the challenge for Richardson was simple. How do you pace yourself when you are so dominant there’s no one else near you?

“My brother was there, and he called out to me to use the lead bicycle,” Richardson said, referring to the bike that leads the race, letting spectators and others know that the runners are approaching. “I thought that seems like a good idea, so I used the bike to pace myself and it worked!”

The women also placed second overall as a team, qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the eighth time in program history.

The women and men are now at Michigan State University, preparing for Saturday’s (Nov. 19) national meet, but for Smith, it’s going to be tough to top the regional.

“I would say it’s the most special moment of my cross country career,” Smith said. “Not because my shoe fell off and I still did well, but because we as a team achieved so much, together. There were a lot of tears of joy after we crossed that finish line.”

The women’s rowing team is seeking its third straight national title at this weekend’s NCAA Championships in Indianapolis, and it’s a veteran squad:聽 The only first-year in either varsity boat is Lily Kinder 鈥�22 of聽Pike, N.H.

Not only is she new to 乐播传媒, she’s new to the sport.

“When I came to tour 乐播传媒, I talked to one of the assistant coaches just out of fun to see if they allowed walk-ons,” Kinder said. “And they were like 鈥榊eah, come on in, you鈥檙e welcome!鈥�”

In fact, a key to 乐播传媒’ rowing success is how the program embraces novices.

“We look for people who just come to us on their own and they鈥檙e interested in excelling at something, and trying something new,” NESCAC Coach of the Year Peter Steenstra said. “Once you realize that this sport is similar to stacking wood, it鈥檚 just a matter of repetition.”

Kinder embraced her opportunity, and her teammates love having her on the team.

Lily Kinder 鈥�22 of聽Pike, N.H., is the sole first-year competing for 乐播传媒 at this weekend’s NCAA Rowing Championships. (Brewster Burns for 乐播传媒 College)

“A lot of practices, right when we finish, she鈥檒l turn around and smile at me, or I鈥檒l tap her back or give her a high five, and it just makes me smile, and makes me really happy,” said co-captain Claudia Glickman ’19 of Bellaire, Texas.

“And she鈥檚 always smiling, always in a good mood, so excited to be here.鈥�

Glickman and another 乐播传媒 co-captain, Sophie Claus ’19 of聽Beverly, Mass., were both rowing novices when they first stepped on campus in 2015.

“Rowing is amazing in that you can try it for the first time as a freshman in college, so I decided to give it a shot and found the team to be absolutely incredible and the most welcoming toward novices, which you don鈥檛 always find,” said Claus.

For the first time since 2012, both 乐播传媒 cross country teams qualified for the NCAA Championships in the same season. They are traveling to聽Winneconne, Wis., to compete Saturday against the nation’s best.

鈥淎lthough we run separate programs, we are totally invested in each other鈥檚 program,鈥� men’s cross country head coach Al Fereshetian said. 鈥淭his is what you want to happen 鈥� both teams to have success and have the chance to get out there and compete at nationals.鈥�

The teams share striking similarities. Both the women and the men entered New England Regionals ranked No. 24 in the country. They both finished in sixth place at regionals, and they both qualified for nationals this year after coming up just short last season.

鈥淓specially after the result from last year, this year was just a whole different feeling,鈥� said women’s cross country captain Ayden Eickhoff 鈥�19 of Corvallis, Mont. 鈥淎fter we found out the guys鈥� team was going too, we knew it was just going to be more of a communal competition over there, and we鈥檙e really excited about it.鈥�

This marks the sixth time in program history the men have qualified for NCAAs and the fifth time for the women. This is the women’s team’s second trip to nationals in the last three years.

鈥淣ationals is always hard,鈥� women’s cross country head coach Jay Hartshorn said. 鈥滻f it doesn鈥檛 feel hard, you鈥檙e not working hard enough. You just have to prepare for how hard the experience is going to be and being really ready to put it all out there.鈥� 聽聽聽聽聽

For the 11th straight year, the 乐播传媒 women rowed in the NCAA Championships. For the second time in three years, they returned to campus as national champions.

We went behind the scenes at the championships, held May 26 and 27 on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J., to capture emotion and excitement from student athletes and fans alike.

Even after it was all over, the 乐播传媒 seniors didn’t want to leave.

“This is my team. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye,” said Abbey Bierman ’17, coxswain of the second varsity eight boat.

The championship came thanks to gutsy performances by both 乐播传媒 boats. “It was really the epitome of what I love about this sport,” Julia Mason ’17 said.

“This is setting the team up really well for the next four years,” Molly Pritz ’17 said. “I’ll be on shore, screaming my heart out.”

The 乐播传媒 women’s rowing team defeated Williams by one point to win the 2017 NCAA Championship in dramatic fashion the morning of May 27 on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J.

Competing first at the regatta, the Bobcats’ second varsity eight won its race (their fourth consecutive gold medal), earning 乐播传媒 12 points. Williams’ boat finished third, and that would be critical.

乐播传媒’ first varsity eight then took to the water. Though they would finish second to Williams (earning 27 points), 乐播传媒’ 39 points overall were enough for the championship, just one point better than Williams’ 38, the Ephs falling short because of their third place finish earlier in the 2V8 race.

Watch this clip of the team being introduced as national champions, plus comments from senior Molly Pritz:

乐播传媒’ 2V8 rowers watched nervously from the shore as the first varsity eight battled its way to second. Captain Abigail Bierman ’17, second varsity coxswain, describes the scene.

“We’re watching, we’re watching, and Wellesley puts up this fight in the last 500 meters that almost gets them,” she recalls. But 乐播传媒 “put up an even bigger fight. My bow seat聽Alex Salazar聽turns around and is like ‘I can’t watch any more!'”

The race ends, and “we whip our heads around to the coaching staff, and ask, ‘Did we?’ and they nodded 鈥� We did!”

The weekly 乐播传媒 Bobcast features the national champs:

This marks the 11th consecutive year the 乐播传媒 women have rowed聽in the NCAA Championships. They have finished first twice (2015 and 2017), second six times, third twice and fifth once.

For the second straight year, 乐播传媒 received a silver-medal performance by the first varsity eight boat, while the 2V8 boat also finished higher than any other second varsity eight in the field save for Williams.

乐播传媒 2 competed in the Petite Final, 15 minutes before the Grand Final at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, and finished in fourth place out of six boats in a time of 7:06.02, just 2.48 seconds behind Washington College 1 for third place and ahead of the 2V8’s from Ithaca (7:10.06) and Trinity (7:13.41).

In the Grand Final, the 乐播传媒 1V8 stood in second place at every 500-meter interval of the 2,000-meter course at Lake Natoma. 乐播传媒 couldn’t make up enough ground on Williams’ 1V8 in a final sprint, but like Friday’s elimination heat, the boat was able to maintain a slight lead over Williams’ 2V8 and held that boat off to keep the Ephs from sweeping the top two spots in the race. Williams 1 won in 6:43.81, followed by 乐播传媒 at 6:48.66, Williams 2 at 6:49.02, Trinity 1 (6:52.94), Ithaca 1 (6:55.87) and Puget Sound 1 (7:04.43).

乐播传媒 is headed by captains Danica Doroski ’10 (Wayne, Pa.), Alison Frye ’10 (Duxbury, Mass.) and Ellen Patterson ’11 (St. Louis Park, Minn.). Other team members expected to make the trip include sophomore Haley Sive (Glenville, N.Y.), junior and two-time Pocock All-American Rebecca Waldo (Dracut, Mass.), sophomore Elizabeth Sonshine (Short Hills, N.J.), sophomore Amy Jacks (Baltimore, Md.), junior Phoebe Reed (Brooklyn, N.Y.), senior Lindsay Thomson (West Hartford, Conn.), sophomore Allison DiSalvo (Lowell, Mass.), junior Davina Dukuly (Lowell, Mass.), first-year Amanda Goss (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), sophomore Kelsey Dion (Truckee, Calif.), junior Emma White (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), junior Hannah Richardson (Concord, Mass.), first-year Catherine Tuttle (Pittsford, N.Y.). sophomore Caroline Webb (Tiburon, Calif.), junior Nora Collins (Kensington, Md.), first-year Elizabeth Bowling (Greenwood Village, Colo.), first-year Carrie Dillaway (Woodbridge, Conn.) and first-year Victoria Zapack (Charlotte, N.C.).

Doroski, Frye and Thomson plan to walk at Commencement back on campus in Lewiston Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

Friday Recap

乐播传媒 women’s rowing team’s first varsity eight fought off runner-up Williams’ 2V8 as well as rival Trinity’s 1V8 in the third and final elimination heat on Friday morning, as the NCAA Division III Women’s Rowing Championships got under way at Lake Natoma.

乐播传媒’ 2V8 finished off the day by taking first place in the Petite Qualifier.

乐播传媒 1V8 led Williams 2V8 by a slim margin at each 500-meter juncture of the 2,000-meter race, and both boats overtook Trinity in the second 500 meters. 乐播传媒 timed in at 6:41.10, with Williams 2V8 at 6:42.02, Trinity 1V8 at 6:47.98, Wellesley 2V8 at 7:04.53, Mary Washington 1V8 at 7:12.88 and Puget Sound 2V8 sixth at 7:21.47. Three of the top four times in the preliminary heats were registered in the third heat.

Entering the championship, 乐播传媒’ 1V8 ranked fourth in Division III by the College Rowing Coaches Association/US Rowing, with Trinity at No. 3.

As the heat winner, 乐播传媒 advanced automatically to the Grand Final, joining the other two heat winners, Williams 1V8 and Ithaca 1V8.

乐播传媒’ 2V8 also fared well, taking fourth place out of five boats in Elimination Heat 2 in a time of 7:05.47, trailing only three high-quality 1V8’s in Ithaca (6:48.63), St. Lawrence (6:55.19) and Wellesley (6:55.34) and well ahead of St. Lawrence 2V8 (7:13.67). 乐播传媒 2V8 moved on to the Petite Qualifier at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon. 乐播传媒 was in control throughout the race: neck-and-neck with Ithaca’s 2V8 after 500 meters, the 2V8 pulled slightly ahead at the halfway mark and extended the lead over the final 1,000 meters, finishing in 7:11.06. Ithaca 2 was second in 7:14.72, followed by Trinity 2 (7:16.64), which edged Wesleyan 2 (7:18.31) for the third and final automatic berth in Saturday’s Petite Final.

CLAREMONT, Calif. — They may as well have played聽on their聽own home courts,聽or at Lisbon High School for that matter, 3,000 miles away. But one of the greatest moments in the history of 乐播传媒 athletics was a win over virtual neighbor and arch rival Bowdoin,聽decided in Southern California late Sunday night.

乐播传媒 College pair Ben Stein and Amrit Rupasinghe defeated聽Bowdoin duo聽Jamie Neely and Oscar Pena 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 for the NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Doubles Championship on Sunday night at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Just five minutes before midnight back in Maine, 乐播传媒 clinched its first NCAA tennis doubles title when Stein, at net, volleyed back a Bowdoin shot to win the final point, following a Rupasinghe serve, at 40-0.

It is the聽second NCAA tennis crown overall (Will Boe-Wiegaard won the singles title in 2006) for 乐播传媒, as well as the second NCAA championship ever for Bobcat athletics in any sport other than track and field.

“There was [added] pressure because it was Bowdoin, our most intense rival in just about every sport,” said 乐播传媒 head coach Paul Gastonguay. “But at the same time, we knew them and we know we could beat them. The familiarity of knowing the team sometimes adds more pressure, because feel like you’re supposed to beat them. We felt like we had to win. It would have been easier to take if we had lost to anyone else.”

Stein (Pelham, N.Y.) and Rupasinghe (Colombo, Sri Lanka) defeated Washington University in St. Louis doubles team Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4 in the semifinals late Sunday afternoon. It was the second straight year the 乐播传媒 pair has met and defeated the Washington University pair at NCAAs.

Prior to the doubles win on Sunday, Stein — unseeded, just as he and Rupasinghe were in the doubles draw — was defeated in the NCAA singles championship by Emory University’s Michael Goodwin, 7-5, 5-7, 6-1. Goodwin edged Stein in the first set, 7-5, and led 5-3 in the second set. Stein held serve to close the gap to 5-4, then broke Goodwin’s serve to stay alive and tie the set up at 5-5. Stein rode the momentum to capture the next two games and win the set, 7-5, sending the match to a third set, which Goodwin won decisively. Stein finished the season 21-7 in singles play.

The doubles title聽wrapped up an exhausting three days for Stein in particular. The senior, who played at No. 6 singles for 乐播传媒 as a freshman, played five singles matches and four doubles matches in the three-day span of the singles and doubles championships, going 4-1 in singles and 4-0 in doubles. In all, he played 24 sets over the three days, including three tiebreakers.

“Amrit was crying his eyes out. Ben was beside himself. He couldn’t believe it,” said Gastonguay, describing the moments after the championship point. “Then we got together for great group hug. It was a really special moment, because a lot of hard work and dedication went into that moment. “The neatest thing was the support we got. Right after the final point, calls, e-mails, texts started pouring in, just people celebrating in places all over the world. I told them, ‘You’re part of a unique club right now.'”

Rupasinghe, the 2007 national singles champion in his native Sri Lanka,聽told the Lewiston Sun Journal that winning this doubles title outshines that moment in his eyes. “Definitely being a Division III champion,” Rupasinghe said he preferred. “I would say this is something I wanted since I came to college, to win a national championship. I think I’m the first player from Sri Lanka to do that. I couldn’t believe it. It was like, ‘This is not real.'”

Saturday Recap

Stein, the 乐播传媒 senior, won two singles matches on Saturday to advance to the finals of the singles championship. He then teamed up with Rupasinghe to play his sixth match in two days, and 乐播传媒’ two-time All-American 乐播传媒 duo won that match, too, to advance to the semifinal round.

Stein defeated the top seed in the 32-player field, John Kauss of Gustavus Adolphus, 7-5, 7-5, to reach Sunday’s championship final.

Prior to his semifinal victory, Stein defeated聽Andrew Wang聽of Johns Hopkins University in the quarterfinal round on Saturday morning, dropping the first set and edging Wang in a tiebreaker in the second set to stay alive, eventually winning by a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-0 score.

Stein becomes the third 乐播传媒 player to reach an NCAA final. His teammate for one year, Will Boe-Wiegaard ’06, played in the final in both 2005 and 2006, winning the championship in 2006, and Buddy Schultz ’81 was the first to reach the singles final, in 1981.

Stein and Rupasinghe then faced the Kenyon College pair of Michael Greenberg (the 2008 NCAA singles champion) and Will VandenBerg. The Bobcats won the first set in a tiebreaker and cruised in the second set for a 7-6(1), 6-2 victory.
Stein, now a three-time All-American, played for the NCAA singles championship earlier in the day. Stein played nine matches in three days. (Photo courtesy of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)

Friday Recap

The 乐播传媒 College men’s tennis team saw its top singles player and its top doubles team both earn All-America honors on Friday at the NCAA Division III Tennis Championships. Stein won two singles matches to advance to the quarterfinals of the singles championships, before he teamed up with Rupasinghe to win in the first round of the doubles championship.

Stein defeated Robbie Erani of host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, in the first round of the singles tournament. The win clinched Stein’s second career All-America honor and his first in singles play.

Stein, who is making his NCAA singles debut, advanced to face Mark Boren of Emory University in the Round of 16, defeating the NCAA championship veteran by a score of 6-4, 6-4.

The doubles portion of the tournament began after two round of singles play, and Stein and Rupasinghe, who made it to the semifinals of the doubles tournament last year but were not seeded this year, matched up against the second-seeded team of Max Liberty-Point and Ilya Gendelman of UC Santa Cruz. The Bobcats fell behind early as the Banana Slugs won the first set 6-3, but they rebounded with consecutive 6-3 set wins to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Stein’s success was all the more stunning considering his tennis background, which unlike most of the other players at the NCAA Championships didn’t include the junior circuit as a teenager.

“It’s cool to beat up on the guys that used to be too good to even bother paying attention to you,” Stein told the Sun Journal. “It shows that when you really dedicate yourself to something, make a decent effort at something, you can get the result you expect.”

Senior Ben Stein ’09, seen here, and partner Amrit Rupasinghe ’10 defeated聽Bowdoin for the 2009 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Doubles Championship at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

While Sylvan Ellefson 鈥�09 hasn鈥檛 banished sweets or Commons crispitos from his diet, he鈥檚 honed an understanding of what his body needs to perform at peak level.

“I was definitely not conscious of eating a balanced diet my first year here,” says Ellefson, a Nordic skier from Vail, Colo., who won All-America honors at last year鈥檚 NCAA Skiing Championships. “But in the past two years I鈥檝e really realized what it means.”

Now, he and his teammates consider 乐播传媒 Dining Services to be part of their team. “Commons does a great job of providing us with the food we need for how we train,” Ellefson says.

For example, when the Nordic team travels during carnival season, their van carries Commons-provided food like granola, breads, fruits, and yogurt. Not for the skiers鈥� major meals 鈥� they get meal money for that 鈥� but for quick post-race nutrition. “Your body recovers more quickly if you get food right after a race,” explains Sam Evans-Brown 鈥�09, Ellefson鈥檚 teammate.

When it comes to establishing healthy food routines, the teammates support each other, says head coach Becky Flynn Woods 鈥�89. “It鈥檚 about getting into the right habit. For example, the skiers racing later in the day will take time in the morning to prepare food, like PB&Js, for everyone to eat right after
the races.”

These days, the Nordic team鈥檚 training is especially motivated, what with For Ellefson, a Colorado-raised skier not recruited by any Division I schools out West, his competitive cup runneth over. “I鈥檓 proud to race as a Bobcat,” he says. “I love it in Maine.”

An alpine enthusiast growing up, Ellefson and his Vail Mountain School soccer buddies took up cross-country skiing to stay in shape during the winter. As a high school sophomore, he won skimeister as the best performer in Nordic and alpine events. By then, he knew his forte was Nordic so he dropped alpine, comparing it to choosing soccer over baseball when, as a little kid, he “couldn鈥檛 hit the ball off the tee.” But as a relative latecomer to Nordic skiing, Ellefson came East for college when Division I schools passed him up.

Highly competitive by nature, Ellefson describes his mother, Tashina, as a “tremendous” athlete. His late father, Lyndon, who helped found the sport of skyrunning 鈥� high-altitude, long-distance running 鈥� died in 1998 when, on a training run near Cervinia, Italy, he fell into a hidden snow crevasse, dropping 75 feet to his death.

Sylvan Ellefson is well-aware of his father鈥檚 reputation as a highly motivated competitor who pushed himself hard. “I feel that if I can do something really well, I can carry on his legacy,” he says. “In my case that鈥檚 Nordic skiing.” Looking ahead to his post-乐播传媒 racing career, he wants to “get to that level,” referencing the accomplishments of Nordic alums like Justin Freeman 鈥�98, a 2006 U.S. Olympian, “and then do better.”

Ellefson鈥檚 specialty is freestyle, like skating on skis, and he earned trips to the NCAA Championships in both 2006 and 2007. Last year was a breakthrough season, as he won freestyle races at the season-ending carnivals at Williams and Middlebury, the first-ever wins for a 乐播传媒 Nordic skier on the Eastern Collegiate Skiing Association circuit. At the 2008 NCAA Championships, Ellefson finished fourth in the 10K freestyle, one of only three Americans, and the only Division III skier, in the top 10.

While Ellefson targets another top-five finish, teammate Evans-Brown, a Spanish major from Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H., is so eager to qualify for his first NCAAs that he spent last summer in Argentina, living with a government official who鈥檚 a cross-country enthusiast, so he could train on snow. “I had easy access to skiing and was well-fed,” he says. “Lots of meat, for breakfast, lunch, snacks.”

There, he earned a reputation as “the kid who always eats,” and Evans-Brown estimates that he and Ellefson will take in 6,000 to 9,000 calories a day while training hard. That鈥檚 more than triple the typical daily diet of 2,500 calories 鈥� if not quite the famous 12,000-a-day regimen of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

While the Nordic team tends to frequent Italian restaurants on the road for a good balance between protein and carbs, “what you eat right before a race is not so important, I think,” Evans-Brown says. What鈥檚 critical is “fueling yourself well while you鈥檙e training.”

At a recent campus meal, Ellefson and Evans-Brown are joined by Nicole Ritchie 鈥�09 of East Dummerston, Vt. Twice an All-American rower as well as a skier, she has begun to avoid processed food. “A friend is doing a thesis that focuses on corn syrup,” she says. “I鈥檝e been reading over her shoulder. The amount of energy going into producing corn syrup is pretty disgusting.”

In the new dining Commons, Ritchie gravitates toward local products: apple cider from Greenwood Orchards, chocolate milk from Oakhurst Dairy, and hamburgers from grass-fed, Cold Spring Ranch beef (see page 16) for her training fuels. She also frequents the vegan bar.

“Making your own food choices takes a lot of different economic and environmental issues into your hands,” says Ritchie. “It鈥檚 really cool that Commons supports us in making these decisions.”